Current of Tampa Bay, Inc.

Current is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in Florida that started with young adults committed to educating others on current social initiatives and mobilizing them to bring about change. Current establishes community groups for awareness and education and organizes local initiatives such as the Laundry Project, Hope For Homes Project and Affordable Christmas.

1. The Laundry Project assists low-income families with meeting a basic need – washing clothes and linens, by turning laundromats into community centers of hope. Laundry fees are paid for while volunteers assist with laundry services, entertain children, and create a caring space at the laundromat.

2. Hope for Homes Projects provide remodeling and improvement work on homes owned by working class families. For many families, repairing damages and improving living spaces presents a financial challenge. As a result, their homes tend to go long periods without necessary maintenance and enhancements. Hope For Homes Projects relieve this burden by providing improvement work such as repairing damaged roofs and porches, remodeling kids rooms, bathrooms and outdated energy inefficient kitchens etc.

3. Affordable Christmas is a shopping event for lower-income, working-class families to provide their children fun and exciting gifts during the holiday season. Families are invited through partnering community organizations to attend the event and purchase new, unused gifts at 1/10 the cost of their original price. Affordable Christmas makes it easy for those families who may be financially struggling, to give their children a special Christmas. All gifts are intended for children and teens ages 0-14 years old. Families can purchase gifts such as bikes, skateboards, arts/crafts kits, video games, sports toys etc. and spend no more than $10 per item. Having families purchase items rather than free gives empowerment and dignity to these working parents who simply need a hand up.

One of our core values as an organization is partnership - the idea that it "takes a village" so to speak to address many of the complex issues our low-income families are facing. We view ourselves as playing a key role in helping families through simple, yet highly impactful initiatives such as the ones previously described. We recognize that what we are able to do to help families through our initiatives is but one piece of the puzzle, so we strive to partner with local businesses, churches, community groups & individuals within each community where we host our initiatives. We believe that our expertise & resources paired with their expertise & resources forms a powerful partnership that can open up new opportunities for our low-income families to find a support system they may not have had access to otherwise.

Within this framework - we seek to find sponsors for each initiative, as well as volunteers to fill various roles at each project. We describe our projects as "organized chaos" because there is a strong organic element where people are spending time together, interacting, and being in community with one another, but there is also a highly organized element that enables this organic element to thrive. We ensure that each initiative is well planned and well thought out ahead of time because our belief is that as each detail is handled with attention and care - it gives our families attending the initiative the freedom to not have to worry about any extra logistics or details and simply be themselves within the context of the space we provide.

We partner with donors of all levels to help fund each initiative. We partner with local laundromats that host our Laundry Project events. We partner with local businesses and community groups that provide volunteers in addition to our project leaders and staff. We also utilize various marketing strategies to promote the mission and accomplishments of our organization, as well as getting the word out to families for initiatives that are open to the public. We use every resource at our disposal to try and further our mission of empowering families, meeting a tangible need, mobilizing communities, and bringing hope & dignity to all we encounter.

Our organization depends on donations & volunteers to function. Through our network of individual donors, volunteers, sponsoring organizations, laundromat partners, our social media following, etc we are able to bring together people in each local community to help ensure our initiatives are funded and staffed.

Where we host initiatives on a regular basis, we have a strong team of project leaders who coordinate each event to ensure its success. We keep our overhead costs low so that the majority of funding can go directly to making each project happen. We conduct volunteer trainings and provide informational resources to groups and individuals who partner with us so that the experience for families who participate in each initiative is consistent with our values. We maintain a high level of organization so that all of the administrative needs and back end details are handled, empowering each volunteer and family to focus on the goals and mission of the organization.

As of March 10th, 2021 Current Initiatives has:

1. Hosted 741 Laundry Project events that helped
19,157 Families wash
193,862 Loads of Laundry (1,938,620 lbs.)

2. Helped 1,288 Families shop for new, unused gifts at a reduced cost
for 3,863 Children
through our Affordable Christmas initiative.

3. Hosted 7 Hope for Homes projects that helped each family with needed home repairs.